Systems and methods for automated equipment rental

Abstract

An equipment rental system comprising a kiosk, the kiosk comprising a user interface configured to receive user input and provide outputs to a user, a processor configured to receive the user input from the user interface, generate user output and control a locker system; and a locker system configured to store the equipment and allow access to the equipment under control of the processor, the processor configured to: receive log in and credential information form a user via the user interface, present the user a choice of equipment, receive a selection of equipment through the user interface, gather payment information from the user through the user interface, wherein the payment information corresponds to a period of use for the selected equipment, and control the locker system to make the selected equipment available to the user.

What is claimed: 
     
       1. An equipment rental and purchase system comprising:
 a kiosk, the kiosk comprising a user interface configured to receive user input and provide outputs to a user, 
 a processor configured to receive the user input from the user interface, generate user output and control a locker system; and 
 a locker system for storing a plurality of pieces of golf equipment, the locker system comprising:
 a plurality of discrete positions each configured to store at least one piece of golf equipment and allow access to the plurality of golf equipment under control of the processor, 
 each of the plurality of discrete locations is a locker, at least two or more of the lockers having a non-uniform shape adapted to store golf clubs, the non-uniform shape comprising a first part, from which the golf club is accessible, connected to a tubular second part, the first part having a width larger than a diameter of the tubular second part, wherein the first part is adapted to receive a head of the one golf club and the tubular second part is adapted to receive a shaft of the one golf club, 
 
 the processor configured to:
 receive log in and credential information from a user via the user interface, 
 present the user a choice of golf equipment from the plurality of pieces of golf equipment, receive a selection of one or more pieces of golf equipment through the user interface, wherein the selection of one or more pieces of golf equipment corresponds to one or more discrete positions of the plurality of discrete positions, 
 gather payment information from the user through the user interface, wherein the payment information corresponds to a period of use for the selected one or more pieces of golf equipment, control the locker system to allow access to the corresponding one or more discrete positions to make the selected one or more pieces of golf equipment available to the user, 
 receive a user selection to return at least one of the accessed one or more pieces of golf equipment, and, based on said selection to return, verify that the returned pieces of golf equipment matches one of the accessed one or more pieces of golf equipment and control the locker system to receive the returned pieces of golf equipment, and 
 receive a user selection to provide a piece of golf equipment owned by the user, separate from the plurality of pieces of golf equipment, to the equipment rental and purchase system, and, based on said selection to provide the piece of golf equipment owned by the user, control the locker system to receive the piece of golf equipment from the user for storage and provide a credit to the user based on the received golf equipment, wherein the credit is toward controlling the locker system to allow access to the corresponding one or more discrete positions to make the selected one or more pieces of golf equipment available to the user. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to verify the period of use has not been exceeded. 
     
     
       3. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 2 , wherein the processor is further configured to process additional payment when the period of use has been exceeded, based on the gathered payment information. 
     
     
       4. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 2 , wherein the processor is further configured to process additional payment for the purchase of the equipment. 
     
     
       5. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 2 , wherein the processor is further configured to provide a return receipt when the equipment is successfully returned. 
     
     
       6. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 1 , wherein the locker system comprises a plurality lockers and a plurality of locked doors, each locker and locked door corresponding to a discrete position, wherein controlling the locker system to allow access to the corresponding one or more discrete positions comprises unlocking the corresponding locked doors to allow access to the one or more pieces of golf equipment stored in the corresponding lockers. 
     
     
       7. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 6 , wherein controlling the locker system comprises opening the corresponding locked doors to provide access to the one or more pieces of golf equipment stored in the corresponding lockers. 
     
     
       8. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 1 , wherein the locker system comprises a locked door and a carousel system comprising the plurality of discrete positions, wherein controlling the locker system comprises moving the plurality of discrete positions of the carousel system to align the corresponding one or more discrete positions with the locked door and unlocking the locked door to allow access to the one or more pieces of golf equipment stored at the corresponding one or more discrete positions. 
     
     
       9. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 8 , wherein controlling the locker system comprises opening the locked door to provide access to the one or more pieces of golf equipment. 
     
     
       10. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 1 , wherein the returned the at least one of the accessed one or more pieces of golf equipment comprises at least one of an old piece of golf equipment, a used piece of golf equipment, a previously accessed piece of golf equipment, and a previously purchased piece of golf equipment. 
     
     
       11. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 1 , wherein the gathered payment information comprises the credit. 
     
     
       12. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 1 , wherein the kiosk comprises one or more sensors configured to identify and determine a condition of one or more of the pieces of golf equipment, wherein the processor is configured to, upon receiving the piece of golf equipment from the user, identify the received piece of golf equipment and determine the condition of the received piece of golf equipment based on the one or more sensors, wherein the credit is based in part on the identification and determined condition. 
     
     
       13. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
 identify the received piece of golf equipment based, in part, on a user input identifying the piece of golf equipment through the user interface, wherein the credit or funds is based in part on the identification of the piece of golf equipment. 
 
     
     
       14. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
 track when each of the selected one or more pieces of golf equipment is removed from the locker system based, in part, on one or more tracking devices, and track when each of the one or more pieces of golf equipment is returned to the locker system based, in part, on the one or more tracking devices. 
 
     
     
       15. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 14 , wherein the one or more tracking devices comprises one or more of a sensor based identification technology, barcode based identification technology, camera based visual recognition system, and a combination thereof. 
     
     
       16. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 15 , wherein the sensor based identification technology comprises one or more sensors attached to each of the pieces of golf equipment configured to be detected by the equipment rental and purchase system. 
     
     
       17. The equipment rental and purchase system of  claim 16 , wherein the one or more sensors comprises at least one radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. 
     
     
       18. The equipment rental system of  claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more pieces of golf equipment are golf clubs each comprising a head part and a shaft part, each of the head part and the shaft part comprising a sensor, wherein verifying that the returned piece of golf equipment matches one of the accessed one or more pieces of golf equipment comprises determining that the head part and the shaft part are associated with each other based on outputs received from the sensors. 
     
     
       19. The equipment rental system of  claim 1 , further comprising a computing device associated with the user communicatively coupled to the kiosk via a network, the computing device comprises an application running thereon configured to receive user inputs and provide the user inputs to the kiosk over the network, wherein one or more of the user inputs received by the kiosk are provided by the application. 
     
     
       20. The equipment rental system of  claim 1 , wherein payment information is based on a number of times the selected one or more pieces of golf equipment have been demoed by users of the equipment rental and purchase system. 
     
     
       21. An equipment rental and purchase system comprising:
 a kiosk comprising a user interface configured to receive user input and provide outputs to a user, one or more sensors configured generate outputs, and a processor configured to receive the user input from the user interface, generate user output and control a locker system; 
 the locker system comprising:
 a plurality of discrete positions each configured to store at least one golf equipment and allow access to the golf equipment under control of the processor, 
 each of the plurality of discrete locations is a locker, at least two or more of the lockers having a non-uniform shape adapted to store golf clubs, the non-uniform shape comprising a first part, from which the golf club is accessible, connected to a tubular second part, the first part having a width larger than a diameter of the tubular second part, wherein the first part is adapted to receive a head of the one golf club and the tubular second part is adapted to receive a shaft of the one golf club, 
 
 the processor configured to:
 receive log in and credential information from a user via the user interface, 
 present the user a choice of golf equipment from the golf pieces of golf equipment, receive a selection of one or more pieces of golf equipment through the user interface, wherein the selection of one or more pieces of golf equipment corresponds to one or more discrete positions of the plurality of discrete positions, 
 control the locker system to allow access to the corresponding one or more discrete positions to make the selected one or more pieces of golf equipment available to the user, and 
 upon receiving the one or more pieces of golf equipment being returned by the user, identify the received one or more pieces of golf equipment and determine the condition of at least one of the received one or more pieces of golf equipment based on the output from the one or more sensors, wherein at least the one or more pieces of golf equipment is a golf club comprising a head part and a shaft part, each of the head part and the shaft part comprising an identifying sensor, wherein identifying the received one or more golf clubs comprises determining that head part and shaft part are associated with each other based on outputs from the identifying sensors. 
 
 
     
     
       22. The equipment rental system of  claim 21 , wherein the one or more sensors comprises a camera configured to generate an image of the at least one of the received one or more pieces of golf equipment, wherein the processor is configured to compare the generated image against a previous image of the at least one of the received one or more pieces of golf equipment to determine the condition. 
     
     
       23. The equipment rental system of  claim 21 , further comprising a computing device associated with the user communicatively coupled to the kiosk via a network, the computing device comprises an application running thereon configured to receive user inputs and provide the user inputs to the kiosk over the network, wherein one or more of the user inputs received by the kiosk are provided by the application.